god is faithful to what he's promised and he never promised you would not experience grief [Music] hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents so i'd given a talk at a stupidville conference it was uh one of the only conferences in the summer because of covid and everything being locked down so they live streamed it and whatnot and in the middle of that conference i gave a talk and it was um entitled uh hope does not disappoint um it comes from saint paul's letter to the romans where he talks about our
afflictions that produce character character produces hope and hope does not disappoint and in the midst of that i had to make a confession and i'm making this confession to you as well i think to the best of my memory and my awareness of self i have never been disappointed in god no that doesn't mean i've never been disappointed that doesn't mean you're like oh sure father because he gives you everything you want like no no that's that's that's not the case um i have been massively disappointed in my life i have um yeah just like
every other human being i've experienced the heartbreak of life and loss and uh suffering let me clarify this one there are many people watching this listening to this who have suffered far greater than i have and so um you have you've had greater disappointments you've had greater wounds and greater uh losses than i have so i'm not like saying like i'm in the race for for like winning that i have experienced the suffering of life like everyone has but i've never been disappointed in god and i think that's important every one of us will experience
this appointment every one of us will experience the frustration and sadness and grief like that's that's coming to every single one of us we don't have to all experience this thing called disappointment in god because we keep saying this god is faithful and i believe with everything i have everything i am that is 100 true that god is faithful he has this steadfast love for you that he will never let you down he will never break a promise you say but yeah but he let all these things happen to me what do you mean god
is faithful i have this grief i have this loss i have this suffering what do you mean god is faithful and say god is faithful to what he's promised and he never promised you would not experience grief this is this is the the thing that can maybe the hard word today for all of us to hear but but if we if we get this wrong then we get god wrong if we get this wrong then it's fine for a while while we don't experience a lot of grief while we don't experience suffering well we don't
experience this appointment but if we get it wrong at some point we're going to experience loss and grief and disappointment and it'll be so hard we think wait a second i've thought i've mistakenly thought that god promised me peace in this world i i mistakenly thought that if i followed him then he would give me what i asked for i mistakenly thought that if i prayed to him he would always deliver me from the immediate difficulty that's not true because he never promised he never promised to do that god is faithful he's always faithful to
his promises and he never as the song says never promised you a rose garden he never promised me a rose garden he never promised to deliver us from every snare and every pain and every wound and every grief and loss he did promise something though he promised that in the midst of the grief and in the midst of the loss in the midst of the pain that he would be there now you might say well this is a small consolation and i'd say that's the point right so you say okay so he is going to
um be present but he's not going to take it away like that's thanks a lot god and i again let me clarify this i get that like i understand that that frustration of like what good is it if i still experience this awful evil but also have god well what that does is it highlights what we really want it highlights even why we even come to god some of us came to god because um we were compelled or you know drawn by the truth you know convicted by the truth of who he is some of
us were drawn to god by his goodness some of us are drawn to god by his beauty some of us were drawn to god by his mercy and some of us may have been drawn to god by the mistaken mistaken notion that if i follow him i'll be free of pains in this life and if that's the case then we have to be delivered from that mistaken notion because what it reveals is that actually i would rather have the gift than the giver i'd rather have the um this this deliverance than the deliverer you know
it's so interesting if you go to when jesus god himself was incarnate and living on the walking on this earth walking on this planet when he just when he brought his disciples around him he didn't he did not promise them uh peace hey i'm sorry let's clarify he said a piece that the world doesn't offer i i give you peace but it's not a piece that the world offers like it's it's not um like that you'd be free of trial or free of pain in fact he says if you want to be my disciple you
have to do three things you have to deny yourself pick up your cross daily and follow after me jesus is saying if you want to be a christian these are like kind of three of the main ingredients it's not um do whatever you want avoid every cross and kind of just uh don't follow me i guess jesus is saying no at the heart of discipleship is deny yourself pick up your cross daily and follow after me in fact you think about the actual promises of jesus he says in this world you will have trouble that's
the um you think i've come to bring peace no i've come to bring division i've come to bring the sword he's coming you think that because you belong to me everyone will love you no actually there will be many who will mock you and persecute you and drag you before kings and governors because of your faith in me that jesus makes it very very clear again the word that comes back to me again and again is is his words of just like talking to the people and he's not being he listen he's not being like
me right now he's not being like oh by the way life is going to really stink he's talking to people that he absolutely loves these are people he's going to die for these are people that he's going to send his holy spirit upon because he wants to be with them forever and he says in this world you will have trouble that's the promise he doesn't stop there though he says but take heart take courage because i've overcome the world now right now in your life right now you might experience disappointment loss grief all those that's
great incredible sorrow that might be you right now you might be disappointed in in life but my invitation is please do not be disappointed in god that in the midst of your grief that that can't take your faith the midst of your sorrow you don't also lose your hope that in the midst of of this great incredible pain you don't let it take your trust because jesus promised you in this world you will have trouble but take heart i have overcome the world and in the midst of your pain i will be there in the
midst of the flood i will be there in the midst of the fire i will be there not necessarily to take you out of the flood not necessarily to deliver you from the fire but to be in the fire with you what's christ's last promise behold i am with you always until the end of the age maybe i was just trusting in the idea the false promise that no one made that i wouldn't experience these sorrows or am i trusting in him or am i trusting lord i know there will be floods i know you
promised there would be that the winds will blow and buff at my house that it might even collapse but then you will be there the question my faith has to ask is is that enough you will be there lord the question my love has to ask is will that be enough he will be there the question my hope has to ask and answer is he will be there will that be enough because if it is enough there will be pain there will be disappointment but there will be no disappointment in god because he will always
always be there right now as you're listening to this as you're watching this he is there for you right now turn to him trust in him love him and open him for all of us at ascension presents my name is father mike god bless open the lord you
